Hacked Dreams

Recently, Aenne and Steph from the Arcade Spirits team went to DreamHack to exhibit our game. For this week’s dev blog, I asked Aenne to write up her thoughts. Here they are!

This last weekend, Arcade Spirits found itself in Austin, Texas for DreamHack, a celebration of all things gaming. There were eSports competitions, speedrunning, a pop-up arcade, Artist’s Alley, and in the middle of it all, the IndieZone. And that’s exactly where we found ourselves, one of the four winners of the Best Casual category. It was such an honor being invited to this event and this is the first time showing Arcade Spirits in the convention setting.

This is the first DreamHack I’ve been too, and honestly I didn’t know what to expect. But, overall and, it was a blast! Seeing the overwhelming positive response to Arcade Spirits lifted our spirits in turn. It was great watching people fawn over characters, get excited about a hot new dating sim, and just jam out to the music. We met so many other streamers, those that enjoy visual novels and love streaming them. We bonded over doing the voices, and falling in love with fictional characters. Their genuine excitement made me giddy and I can’t wait to watch everyone’s playthroughs.

One of the things we absolutely adored was watching everyone make their character. Everyone was so different and they all enjoyed going through all the options. Next convention, I’m making a collage of all the “Ari Caders” out there. Unexpectedly, there were a few people that new about us before DreamHack, and that brought me to happy tears. Knowing that our game has reach and people are excited about it is the best feeling out there. Hands down!

In general, narrative games are hard to show at cons. There is always so much external stimuli that it’s hard to concentrate. Having a comfy inflatable chair and noise-cancelling headphones really helped though. Next time we are bringing more inflatable chairs…all the inflatable chairs…never enough inflatable chairs.

DreamHack was pretty amazing. Met so many awesome people and forged grand friendships! I learned a ton and I can’t wait until PAXWest! Hope to see you all there!